Archive for January, 2014

If Cameron Slater was a beached whale, the volunteers likely to show up to help him off the beach would almost certainly be limited to close friends and immediate family, judging by the fallout from his latest escapade. On such occasions, it is obligatory for someone to trot out Voltaire’s ...

In the world of thankless jobs, being the Leader of the Opposition is right up there. It involves being the eternal suitor – always trying to look strikingly different on one hand but credibly reliable on the other, while being unable to make a shred of meaningful difference for a ...

It may still be only January, but the first of the election year goodies has just been unveiled.
Hard to argue with an extra $359 million for teacher pay, spread over four years. No doubt, this helps to explain the guarded optimism with which the PPTA has greeted the education ...

Anyone who felt surprised by yesterday’s announcements about who National sees as being its compatible coalition partners after the last election would have to be either naive, or asleep at the wheel. United Future Act and the Maori Party may be the preferred partners of the Key government but the ...

On Housing as an Election Issue
According to a recent international study New Zealand is one of the least affordable places on Earth to own a house, given that the study’s authors estimate that house prices in Auckland are running at roughly 8 times a median income of $75,000. As ...

The apparent resignation of Alastair Thompson from Scoop - there seems to be some dissent as to whether he has resigned or gone on sabbatical - was triggered by the release of information about his involvement with Kim Dotcom’s Internet Party. If his exit does prove to be permanent, this ...

Here’s how you’d think the system would work, when it comes down to the environmental impacts of oil and gas exploration. You’d hope and expect that a good carrot and stick regime would be in place, right? Well, the carrots are obvious enough ; the potential of an oil ...

Call me old fashioned, but the recent versions of the Act Party almost make you feel nostalgic for the days of its youth. Back in the 1990s, Act were happy to be seen as a bunch of Randian enthusiasts brimful of certainty that once New Zealand heard The Message, ...